Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Zhu Youjian was very surprised that the feudal nobles were able to raise the money to buy shares so quickly.

Tu Wenfu was summoned to ask where these people's money came from:

"I know that Earl Ningyuan has a lot of money, but didn't the King of Han and the Duke of Jiangling invest all their savings in their fiefdoms?"

"How did you gather 100,000 taels of silver so quickly to buy some shares?"

Li Chengliang had guarded Liaodong for decades and had accumulated a rich fortune. Even if the Ningyuan Earl Li family fell into decline, it would not be difficult for them to come up with 100,000 taels of silver.

Zhu Youjian even knew that Li Zunzu, with the support of the Li family, was now training the Golden Corner Guards using the same methods he used to train the servants.

As a result, many immigrants from Shaanxi were accepted by the Ningyuan Earldom. This is also the reason why Zhu Youjian did not urge the Ningyuan Earldom to send troops this year.

He hoped that Li Zunzu would train an elite force to pose a threat to the Jianlu in the rear.

To this end, he also increased his support for Ningyuan Marquisate. In addition to Jiangling Principality, the wood purchased by the inner court workshop mainly came from them.

In comparison, the Principality of Jiangling and the vassal state of Han were inferior in financial resources.

After Zhang Juzheng's death, the Zhang family was confiscated and basically no property was left. If it weren't for Zhu Youjian's support, they wouldn't have been able to get the money and grain to open a fiefdom.

The Han clan had too many people, and some members of the royal family were so poor that they had to beg for food. In Zhu Youjian's impression, they were extremely poor.

In this regard, Tu Wenfu said:
"This year, Lord Jiangling, together with the Black Dragon Battalion and the new Patrol Battalion troops, plundered the Khorchin tribe and gained a lot of benefits."

“And they had a prosperous lumber and ice business, raising money from the South.”

The handicraft industry in the Jiangnan area was quite developed, almost reaching the limit before the advent of the industrial age. The silk, porcelain, etc. produced were sold all over the world.

The thirst for resources is also very strong, and there are many wealthy people accumulated.

Many wealthy people who were building houses were willing to buy the timber harvested from the Principality of Jiangling.

The court's policy of developing maritime transport also prompted many Jiangnan merchants who coveted the profits from maritime trade to start building seagoing ships.

Building seagoing ships naturally requires large wood, especially masts which require wood that is more than ten feet long.

This kind of wood is basically extinct in Jiangnan. The money needed for the mast of a large ship is as high as thousands of taels of silver.

After Zhang Tongchang learned this when he went to the south to buy a ship, he sent people to search carefully in his fiefdom and found tall timber that could be used to make masts.

He contacted the shipbuilding merchants in Jiangnan and sold the mining rights of these timbers, easily earning tens of thousands of taels of silver, and the income continued to flow in.

As for the ice business, it was even easier to do. After the emperor instructed him to use sawdust to preserve ice, the ice business of Jiangling Principality even expanded to Southeast Asia.

The local wealthy people in Jiangnan were not stingy in purchasing them, especially after the invention of the heating and cooling pipes was introduced to Jiangnan.

Some wealthy businessmen even made pipes out of copper, so the cost of buying ice cubes was just a drop in the bucket for them.

Even in the not-so-cold winter in Jiangnan, they turned on the heaters to keep the indoor temperature within a comfortable range.

This invention, which was not very popular in Beijing, quickly became popular among the wealthy families in Jiangnan. Those large families heated their own homes and did not need to unite for central heating.

When summer comes, these people will naturally buy ice. Some families even order ice from Jiangling Dukedom in advance.

Relying on these wealthy people, Zhang Tongchang raised funds very smoothly. He imitated the measures of the Ming Dynasty Shipping Group and jointly established the Jiangling Shipping Company with Jiangnan merchants, and easily raised 100,000 taels of money.

The King of Han was also inspired by this and used the fleet and port of the Han clan to establish a shipping company. He then used the raised funds to purchase shares of the Ming Shipping Group.

These three earliest developed vassal states together purchased 3% of the shipping group's shares.

Zhu Youjian was very pleased with this. The fact that the three vassal states could easily come up with 100,000 taels meant that their financial resources were more than that.

After seeing their profits, the nobles in the capital would naturally be more motivated to establish fiefdoms.

After thinking about Zhang Tongchang's approach, he said:
“The one percent of shares purchased by the three countries will be held by their shipping companies.”

"Let the merchants who have invested in the Three Kingdoms Shipping Company indirectly hold shares in the Ming Shipping Group."

"The same goes for other vassal states. Let them form shipping companies and hold shares."

"The shareholders of these companies must be registered with Daming Shipping Group, and their legal property will not be illegally infringed upon."

This method is used to protect the property of those merchants and at the same time give them the opportunity to participate in the purchase of shares of the Ming Shipping Group.

The shares they own, as well as the cross-holdings between Ming Shipping Group and those shipping companies, will make the ties between Ming and the vassal states closer.

This policy was warmly welcomed by businessmen, who were eager to buy shares of the Ming Shipping Group and participate in this feast of wealth.

Mao Chenglu, who was raising funds to buy shares for Mao Wenlong, was soon approached by a businessman. He was also delighted when he learned about this:

"That's good. We don't have to spend money to buy shares."

"The money my uncle gave me can also be used to buy muskets."

As Mao Wenlong's nephew and adopted son, he could be said to be Mao Wenlong's spokesperson in the capital. He was the representative of Dongjiang Territory in the Noble Council.

Mao Chenglu had previously received a task, which was to apply to the court for the allocation of breech-loading rifled muskets. Mao Wenlong planned to form a sniper team to attack the Jianlu in the future.

Mao Chenglu went to the Equipment Department many times but failed to apply for muskets. The imperial court did not have enough for its own use, so how could it allocate them to the vassal states?
In the end, Zhu Youjian nodded and allowed Dongjiang to use 50,000 taels of silver to purchase 1,000 breech-loading rifled muskets. The production task of these muskets was mainly given to the Imperial Court Weapon Group.

Mao Chenglu was somewhat dissatisfied with this, thinking that it was unreasonable for the emperor to allocate weapons and let him spend money.

But Mao Wenlong was very happy because after communicating with Xie San, he deeply felt the convenience of the breech-loading rifled musket.

Especially his neighbor, Cui Nanyi, the chief of the Jijiang army, is very good at this kind of fire gun. In the future, there will definitely be snipers in the army of the Jijiang leader.

Even if he didn't do it to deal with Jianlu, he still needed to form a sniper team to prevent the Dongjiang army from suffering losses in the future when there was a border dispute with Cijiang.

So after receiving the emperor's permission, he and Shen Shikui raised money from various sources and raised 50,000 taels of silver.

Most of these were accumulated by the high-ranking officials of Dongjiang, and he collected them. In addition, Shen Shikui and Wang Huazhen "borrowed" them from Gwanghae-ling, and asked Gwanghae-bok and the Koreans loyal to him to pay some money.

The 50,000 taels of silver were sent to the capital some time ago. However, when Mao Chenglu paid the deposit, he learned a piece of news:
That means breech-loading rifled muskets will no longer be manufactured, and single-shot rifled muskets will be produced instead.

The court is still studying whether Dongjiang County can purchase this type of musket.

Many Privy Council officials suggested not selling this type of musket.

This made Mao Chenglu so angry that he wanted to hit someone, but fortunately he was persuaded by the people around him and did not cause any trouble.

Feeling depressed, he wrote a memorial to the emperor to complain at the suggestion of his staff, and then he learned about this preferential treatment, which allowed him to use the money to buy shares of the Ming Shipping Group.

Mao Chenglu didn't know much about such business matters and had no intention of buying it at first.

However, at this time, someone reminded him of the importance of shipping group shares, and he began to raise money to buy them.

This person is Zheng Hongkui, the representative of the Zheng family in the capital.

Born into a pirate family, he had a much sharper sense of smell in this regard than Mao Chenglu. After Zheng Zhihu and Mao Wenlong fought together in Korea and established a friendship, he and Mao Chenglu often interacted in the capital.

Facing Mao Chenglu's indifference to the shipping group's shares, Zheng Hongkui persuaded him:
"Since Your Majesty ascended the throne, has He ever treated his meritorious officials unfairly?"

"One hundred thousand taels of silver and a little bit of shares will only make money, it won't lose money at all."

"If you are worried, I can promise you that I will at least increase the price by 20% to buy this little share."

I gave him a guarantee and persuaded him to buy this share.

Therefore, Mao Chenglu planned to use the 50,000 taels of silver in his hand to buy half a share.

He was still not confident about this kind of capital operation and had no intention of borrowing another 50,000 taels to buy shares.

I even felt a little uneasy, worried that something might have happened to the money my uncle gave me to buy a gun.

Until today, he learned the exact news from Tu Wenfu:
You can set up a shipping company, raise funds through the offering, and then use the money raised to buy shares.

If he could raise 100,000 taels of silver, it would be equivalent to getting one point of the shipping group's shares without spending a penny.

Mao Chenglu was very happy about this and immediately went to find Zheng Hongkui and asked him to help find wealthy businessmen to buy shares of Dongjiang Shipping Company.

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Zheng Hongkui, as the representative of the Zheng family, also received this suggestion.

He was not as happy about this as Mao Chenglu, because the Zheng family did not need to issue shares and could come up with 100,000 taels of money to buy shares.

At most, a shipping company would be established in accordance with the requirements of the Royal Assets Commission.

This shipping company can be solely owned by the Zheng family, or he can discuss with his eldest brother and get a portion of the shares.

After hearing Mao Chenglu ask him to gather the wealthy businessmen, he said:

"How much assets does your Dongjiang Shipping Company have now?"

"How many shares do you want to sell, and how much silver per share?"

Mao Chenglu was clueless about this question and thought for a long time before answering:
"Dongjiang has a navy. In the future, the sailors and small boats for logistics can be allocated to Dongjiang Shipping Company."

“There is also a dock on Pi Island, and it will be built in Yizhou and other places in the future.”

"These things should be worth some money, right? Could they be worth 100,000 taels?"

He planned to take out half of his shares and raise 100,000 taels of silver.

Zheng Hongkui listened to his offer and thought about it in his mind.

In his opinion, the small boats in Dongjiang were not worth much.

On the contrary, he valued the sailors of the Dongjiang Navy more.

As the navy and maritime trade began to develop rapidly, sailors were in short supply everywhere, so much so that the emperor made amends and allowed the nine surnames of fishermen, boatmen and other untouchables to join the navy, and they could become good citizens after serving in the navy.

The sailors of the Dongjiang Navy may not be that outstanding, but since they have the foundation, they can be trained.

In addition, the Dongjiang Territory controls the coastline around the mouth of the Yalu River. After recovering Liaodong and establishing a port in the future, trade with Liaodong and North Korea will also be very profitable.

So he acknowledged:
"Half of the shares of Dongjiang Shipping Company are worth one hundred thousand taels without any problem."

"If it can't be sold at this price, I will take out 100,000 taels to buy these shares."

He made a direct guarantee and even wanted to take over half of the shares.

For the Zheng family, it was not difficult to come up with another 100,000 taels of silver.

Mao Chenglu was very happy to hear this, and became closer to Zheng Hongkui.

However, he was still a little cautious and unwilling to sell half of his shares to one person, saying:
"Let's gather the merchants and ask them!"

"As the eldest brother, you can't let your brothers suffer."

"But I can assure you that I will keep at least 20% of the shares and sell them to you at the price of 40,000 taels."

Zheng Hongkui was a little disappointed about this, because he really wanted to take over half of the shares.

In this way, the Zheng family will have a foothold in the north, and Zheng Zhihu's plan to ask the Dongjiang leader to help train the Marines will be more successful.

But Mao Chenglu was unwilling, so he had to give up this idea. Because the Zheng family now needed help from the Dongjiang leader, and needed their help in training the army.

In the Battle of Yalu River, Zheng Zhihu could not bear the poor performance of the warriors selected from the Zheng family navy on land.

So he tried his best to make friends with the Dongjiang leader and learn how to fight land battles.

For the Zheng family, which is about to establish a fiefdom, this is a more important matter.

As a powerful army capable of moving freely behind the rear of the Jianlu, the Dongjiang Army is worthy of learning from by the Zheng family.

So he could only say:
"Brother, if you want to find more people to invest, that's fine. I will help you contact the businessmen from Fujian to see if they are interested in buying shares."

"No matter how many are sold, I will buy the remaining shares at the price you say."

He planned to find a maritime merchant who had a good relationship with the Zheng family and invest in Dongjiang Shipping.

These maritime merchants would not dare to disobey the Zheng family's orders easily.

In addition, purchasing shares of Dongjiang Shipping Group is also likely to make money.

Without further ado, they raised 60,000 taels of silver to buy 30% of the shares. They even exceeded the amount a little, with a total of 66,000 taels.

The remaining 20% ​​of the shares were naturally left to the Zheng family, and Zheng Hongkui spent 44,000 taels of silver.

Mao Chenglu used the newly established empty shell of Dongjiang Shipping Company to raise 110,000 taels of silver.

After this incident was reported, the nobles in the capital who were eligible to purchase shares of the shipping group were envied by other nobles.

Now everyone knows that the emperor is distributing money in the name of selling shares to support the feudal nobles.

Some people were thinking about establishing a fiefdom as soon as possible so that they could get a chance when the emperor distributed money next time.

Some people had evil ideas and did not want to miss this opportunity.

Queen Zhou's father, Zhou Kui, who has now been promoted to the position of Right General, is one of them.

After learning that Dongjiang Ling had obtained shares worth 100,000 taels of silver without spending a penny, he sent his wife to the palace to ask the Queen for help in obtaining the qualification to purchase shares.

He planned to use the same method to make hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

The reason he told the Queen was, of course, that his family was poor. (End of this chapter)